Disclaimer - I do not down Naruto. But I do own any original character in the story, so hands off. :D

Author's Note - Sorry for the laziness. Haven't had the time, energy or motivation to write this chapter. Don't know why, perhaps my ideas are running low. I'm running on whatever twisted idea that runs through my head. And hopefully that's enough to make this the most fucked up story ever - with style! (I can only hope)

Clarification -

--------------- Scene changes, mostly.

Thoughts

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Chapter Six - When the Morning Comes

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Rica was the first to wake. She yawned and rolled over away from Luca and hugged her pillow. It smelled of Kakashi.

"He smells nice. Nicer than most guys I've known." She thought as she turned on her back.

She had slept soundly throughout the night. It was the first time in months that she was able to sleep soundly. Yawning, she got out of bed and staggered half-awake, to the bathroom.

Rica stood before the mirror, her brown hair sticking up at all angles. Sighing she found a brush and combed it through her hair, making it fall loosely around her shoulders. After making herself presentable she walked out of the bathroom and went into the living room to find that Kakashi was not on the couch. Scratching her head, Rica walked into the kitchen to find two cups of insta-ramen on the kitchen table along with a note. Rica picked up the note and read its contents.

"Left for business. Just add hot water to the ramen. I trust you not to burn down my house. Don't leave till I get back."

The note had not been signed, but Rica knew exactly who it was wrong and set it down to get a pan to boil hot water in.

After scrounging around for a pan Rica sighed and set one on the stove. Instead of starting on the food right away, she decided to take a tour of Kakashi's small, but humble home. It was a typical bachelor pad, but cleaner. He was either a clean person, or didn't spend a lot of time at home. After taking a mini tour, Rica wandered back into the kitchen to start on breakfast.

She set the stove on medium and filled the pan with water and set the pan on the stove, waiting for the water to boil. This being obviously boring, Rica went back into the bedroom to get her new clothes.

Rica took her clothes into the bathroom and set them by the sink and opened the bag to see if its contents was still okay. Seeing that everything was in order, Rica went back into the kitchen, poured the water into the insta-ramen cups and covered them.

"Reminds me of home." She said aloud to herself as she paced the kitchen. It would take at least three minutes for the ramen to be ready, so Rica went back into the living room, folded the blankets that were on the couch and returned them to the bedroom.

Luca was already awake by this time and was sitting up in bed reading one of Kakashi's make out paradise books.

"You know, he doesn't appear to be that pervy, but this proves it." Luca said with a weird expression on her face as she scanned the pages of the book. "Nice plot, but its just…just…"

"You don't have to tell me." Rica said as she opened the closet to put the blankets away.

"Kakashi left us food, and told us not to leave until he gets back. I'm not going to question it, besides, we have a place to stay it seems. Even if it is temporary." Rica said sitting on the bed. She snatched the book from Luca's hands and put it back where it originally was.

"So what'd he leave." Luca said reaching for the book again, only to have Rica stop her.

"Ramen."

"I'll be up in a minute." Luca said as she flew out of bed and into the bathroom.

"Should have said it sooner." Rica said as she fixed the bed and sat down again. She eyed the book on the bed stand and sighed. "Strange book." She got up and went to the kitchen.

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Before Rica was awake

Kakashi rolled off the couch and groaned. The couch was not a pleasant place to sleep, but he could not subject two girls to it either. Yawning loudly he put on his headband and tip-toed into his room to get a clean change of clothes. After getting dressed he walked into the kitchen, took out the ramen and scribbled a note before quickly leaving the apartment and locking the door behind him.

"What should I do about those two…" He said as he shielded his eye against the morning sun. The storm from last night had dissipated and a clear blue morning greeted the village of Konoha.

Kakashi needed to talk to Sasuke about his actions towards Rica, and wasn't really looking forward to it. He also needed to supervise Naruto and Sasuke's training for the day. He didn't have to do much, just show them what they needed to do and watch the two compete against each other to see who could master the skill the fastest.

He had some time to spare as he wandered around the village. Infact he had a lot of time to spare, since it was only a little bit after 8:00am. He had to meet his students at 10:00am. Sighing and putting his hands in his pockets he walked past a bookstore and noticed that the newest Make Out Paradise was on sale. Smiling he walked into the store.

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"That wasn't enough to be considered breakfast!" Luca whined as she licked the sides of the cup.

"That's all that was given. It wouldn't be right to go into his fridge and help ourselves." Rica said as she was disposing of the cup and cleaning up the rest of the kitchen.

"Since we're going to be stuck here until he gets back, lets do something with our time." Rica said looking around the kitchen. "I know, lets clean this place up. It shouldn't take long."

"But…but…" Luca whined.

"You don't have to. I'll do it to keep myself busy." Rica said looking around for a broom and cleaning cloths.

"Alright." Luca shrugged and went back into the bedroom. She was clearly bored.

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It was 11:30am as Kakashi walked out of the bookstore.

"Shit, I'm late again." He said as he was walking in the direction of their meeting place. "They should be used to it by now."

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Rica sat on the floor of a now spotless apartment. It didn't take long for her to clean it up, since it really didn't need much cleaning.

"Well, that was easy. Now for a shower."

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Kakashi strolled up to his students, waved and went straight into what they had to do today. After explaining what they had to do, he pulled Sasuke off to the side for a moment.

"About your actions yesterday…" Kakashi started.

"I know, I was wrong. I shouldn't have threatened her, and I'm sorry." Sasuke said not looking at his teacher.

"You should tell her that. She doesn't seem shaken up over the whole ordeal, but it would be nice for you to say it to her, personally." Kakashi finished, looking directly at Sasuke.

Sasuke felt his teacher's hard stare and looked right at him, giving the same stare in return. This did not effect Kakashi, since he was already used to Sasuke's cold stares, glares, and everything in between.

"Just as long as we have an understanding. Now go off with the others." Kakashi said, his cold stare now a cheerful expression.

Sasuke sighed as he walked away from his teacher. He hadn't meant to hurt Rica, but only to scare her since she did appear to be suspicious after all. Shaking his head he met up with Naruto and began his training exercises.

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About three hours had passed, and Rica had nothing to do. She already showered and changed into her new clothes. She was standing by a full length mirror admiring how her clothes fit her. She wore a simple gray shirt with a zipper down the front with a black mesh under shirt that was rather comfortable with black pants. She didn't care what it looked like on her, just as long as it was within her price range. She was happy that she was clean and was wearing clean clothes.

Luca was still in bed reading that damn book Rica took from her. Rica hadn't read it, so she didn't have any opinion on it, but Luca appeared to be enjoying it, almost as much as Kakashi.

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Kakashi sighed as he leaned against a tree observing Naruto and Sasuke pushing themselves has hard as they could to see which one could do the best. Sakura was going at her own pace, barely paying attention to the two boys. Except for times when she'd stop to stare at Sasuke, blush to herself and continue training.

Stretching, Kakashi walked over to Sakura who was taking a break and stood next to her for a few minutes before saying anything.

"I'm going to go and check on the girls." He said staring off into the distance.

"What?" Sakura said looking up at her sensei.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you guys. Found Rica and Luca outside in the rain, let them stay at my place instead of freezing to death outside. Left them there and told them to wait till I got back. Now I'm getting worried about how the inside of my home is going to be…" He trailed off thinking of what destruction Luca was capable of and shuddered slightly. Rica would be able to contain her, since she appeared to be the most level-headed of the two.

"I had a feeling they didn't have anywhere to stay…" Sakura felt bad for not saying anything sooner. Maybe she could have prevented them from staying out in the cold.

"Well, time to do damage patrol." Kakashi said as he was walking away.

Sakura sat there looking at Naruto and Sasuke train even harder.

"Boys will be boys, I guess." Sakura said as she sat up and dusted off her pants.

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Kakashi appeared in front of his door and fished in his pocket for the key and put it in the lock.

One…two…three…

He opened the door and stood there in shock for a few seconds. He was expecting the worst, but his house was in even better condition when he left it. Walking around he could see that whoever cleaned did a good job at it too. Searching the entire house he walked into his bedroom and saw the two girls sitting. Rica was brushing her hair in front of the mirror and Luca was intently reading Kakashi's book.

"So you find that series interesting?" He said with a smile behind is mask.

Rica and Luca jumped, not expecting him to be home anytime soon.

"Y-y-you're back." Rica stammered as she pulled the brush from her hair. Luca shocked, but went from back to reading.

"I see your friend likes the book." He said jerking his head towards Luca. "I'm also guessing that you were the one that did all the cleaning." He said looking at her.

"Y-yes I did. It wasn't that hard since you kept this place pretty clean as it is." Rica said looking at herself in the mirror.

"Thank you." Kakashi said as he put a hand on her head.

Rica turned a light shade of pink due to the comment and smiled.

"It wasn't any trouble. It was something to do."

"Well, for you guys being good, and not destroying the place, how about I take you to dinner and perhaps something afterwards." Kakashi said, it was the least he could do.

"That'd be nice." Rica smiled.

"Dinner? Like a date?" Luca's head shot up from the book instantly.

"Not a date, a reward." Kakashi blinked at the girl's forwardness.

"Awww…it'd be nice to go out on a date with you." Luca said in a teasing tone.

"Knock it off." Rica snapped at Luca, who had buried her nose back into the book.

Rica turned around to see the man blushing slightly and couldn't help but laugh a little.

"What?" Kakashi said confused.

"Nothing, nothing. How's ramen sound?" Rica said. Even though they've had ramen for the past few days, there was something about the ramen in Konoha that was just excellent.

"Good. Good." Kakashi was glad that the girls only knew of ramen, otherwise he'd probably be broke by nightfall. "Get dressed, or ready, or whatever you girls do and we'll go." He looked at Luca. "And I'll be needing that book, you should start with the first one if you're interested in it."

Luca nodded and gave the book to Kakashi.

"So where's the first book?"

"I'll give it to you later." Kakashi said putting the book in its correct area.

Luca smiled and jumped out of bed. She still hadn't dressed. She picked up her bag of clothes and ran into the bathroom, the door slamming behind her.

Both Kakashi and Rica winced as the door shut.

"She's loud."

"That's an understatement." Rica said as she finished brushing her hair.

Ten minutes later they were all walking to the Ichiraku ramen for an early dinner. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were already there. Sakura and Sasuke were walking Naruto slurp down his second bowl of ramen.

"Hello, hello." Sakura said waving to the three.

"Hello." Kakashi said as he left the three girls go off and chat. He kept a close eye on Sasuke, who seemed oblivious of the entire situation, when he wasn't.

Kakashi sat down and ordered for the girls.

I doubt they care what they get

"So, Kakashi-sensei was telling me that you two got to stay in his house last night." Sakura asked, starting off the conversation.

"Yeah, he woke me up out of a sound sleep and dragged us inside. It was raining, but I didn't really mind. It was really nice of him to take us in." Rica explained.

"You should have said something if you didn't have a place to stay. I would have helped you guys out." Sakura said slightly disappointed.

"I didn't want to burden anyone, I don't know about Luca." Rica said looking over at Luca, who was staring at Naruto eating.

Sakura leaned in closer to Rica and whispered into her ear.

"Did you see what was behind the mask? Naruto and I have been wondering for a while now."

"No, sadly I didn't. He slept in the living room and we took his bed." Rica said with a sad expression.

Now I want to find out…dammit.

"Girls, food's ready." Kakashi said from his seat waving to the girls.

Rica poked Luca's arm sharply.

"Time for food."

"Whoot!" Luca shouted as she took the seat next to Kakashi.

It didn't take long for the girls to finish.

They're getting good at it Kakashi thought as he saw the bowls of ramen he ordered gone in less than five minutes.

"Looks like you two are getting the hang of it." Naruto said a few seats down.

"Yep. Yep." Luca said with a satisfied expression on her face. "I'll beat you in no time."

"Never!" Naruto shouted and slammed his fist on the counter.
"Oh yeah!" Luca said in retaliation.

"Oh no, not this again." Rica put her head on the counter and Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder.

"Some things never change." Rica said with her head down.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked.

"Luca has a competitive streak in her. Naruto awakened it."

"Oh." He said looking at the shouting girl. He could see it, even a blind man would see it.

"Seeing that you two are done how about a drink?" He paused for a second. "How old are you two again?"

"19. Almost 20." Rica said her head still down.

"18." Luca said as she paused for a moment to answer his question, then went back to shouting at Naruto.

"Old enough I guess." He shrugged and got up. "C'mon you two."

They looked old enough. And the legal drinking age was 20. Kakashi didn't care, he needed a drink, so he decided to drag them along, even if they didn't want anything.

Rica followed his lead and dragged Luca unwillingly to where ever Kakashi was taking them. Luca still wanted to argue with Naruto, but Sasuke and Sakura were dragging Naruto off to where ever just as they were leaving.

"Here we are." Kakashi said as he pointed to a small bar. It wasn't very crowded, at least from what it looked like on the outside. "Lets go in."

Rica and Luca followed Kakashi into the bar. Instead of taking his normal place at the bar, he walked over to a table near the corner and sat down. Rica and Luca joined him a couple seconds later.

"Wow, what an interesting place." Rica said looking around. Not too many people were in there. She pictured drunks and bar fights and the stench of cigarette smoke. But none of those things were present.

A waitress appeared at their table a few minutes later.

"Three of the usual." Kakashi said casually. The girl took note of it and walked away.

"That was easy." Rica said

"Yeah, it was." Kakashi said, sort of proud.

As they were waiting two men walked in the bar, obviously intoxicated. One man was tall and lanky while the other one was shorter, but almost as skinny.

"Dude, get out of my way." Grunted the taller man.

"Yo, Ary lay off." Said the shorter man, giving Ary a shove.

"You fucking bastard, you pushed me, you bastard." Ary shouted, staggering to get balanced.

"You didn't get out of my way, that's what you get." The shorter man pushed Ary again, this time a little harder.

"Yo, Shinneri stop it." Ary said trying to balance himself again.

"Make me." Shinneri said trying to egg Ary on.

"Fucking bastard." Ary lunged towards Shinneri.

Shinneri being the most sober of the two simply dodged Ary's assult and laughed.

"You're a fool Ary, go back home to mommy."

"Bastard." Ary said as he went back to try again.

Shinneri extended hit foot, which landed a direct hit with Ary's groin. Ary stopped dead in his tracks, the expression on his face frozen. Shinneri removed his foot and pushed Ary slightly, which caused him to fall over.

Ary suddenly came out of his frozen state and rolled around in pain.

"You kicked me in my nuts, you fucking bastard…oh!" Ary moaned in pain as Shinneri grabbed the collar of his shirt and dragged him to a table.

"Baka." Shinneri said as he left Ary to roll around on the floor near the table.

Rica and Luca looked on, with blank expressions on their faces.

"Ary and Shinneri come in sometimes. Never seen them both drunk before coming in here though." Kakashi said as he took the drinks from the waitress and set them down. He nodded politely and pushed the other two glasses to Rica and Luca.

"What is it?" Luca said looking at the cup's contents.

"Sake." Kakashi said.

"Oooohhh." Luca said as she took a sip and cringed. "Not what I was expecting. Its interesting."

Kakashi nodded and looked at Rica, who hadn't taken a sip yet.

"Sake eh? I've tried some where I come from. I wonder if this stuff is any different." She said as she took a sip, and to her surprise it was the same. "Its good." She smiled at Kakashi who managed to take a sip of his own without removing the mask.

He' s good Rica thought.

"Thank you for taking us out tonight." Rica said as she finished her glass.

"No problem. Like I said you two deserved it."

Luca nodded as she downed the last of her sake. She had never tried an alcoholic beverage before and was starting to feel a bit woozy.

"Woooo. Good stuff. Kakashi-sir. Thank you much." Luca said with a silly grin.

Shit. Was all Kakashi could say in his mind as he looked at the young girl.

"Looks like she can't hold her liquor." Rica mused at Luca. Luca just snorted at her and spaced out.

Kakashi drew the attention of the waitress and ordered two more drinks and sent her off again. The waitress came back minutes later with two more glasses of sake.

"One more for the road." Kakashi said as he gave Rica the other glass.

"Thank you." She said taking it.

Kakashi had already finished his glass, again without Rica seeing him without his mask. She sighed and drank the contents in the glass rather quickly and setting it down on the table with a "thump"

"Ready to go?" Kakashi said looking at Rica.

"Yep. Looks like Luca is ready to go to."

Luca was clearly drunk. She was having a hard time keeping her head up.

"Poor thing, I won't take her drinking that's for sure." Rica said as she got up.

Luca followed Rica's idea of getting up and fell down in the process. Kakashi extended his hand to Luca, who reluctantly took it.

Kakashi paid for the drinks and dragged Luca out of the bar. Rica stood there for a few seconds before leaving. She could hear Ary and Shinneri bantering back and forth to each other from the other side of the room. She smirked and left the bar to find that Kakashi had Luca over his shoulder.

"I don't think she can walk." He said.

"Alrighty." Rica nodded as he followed him.

"Looks like you two are staying at my place again. I can't dump you off at someone else's house, especially with your friend like this." He jerked his head to the twitching mass on his shoulder.

"Thank you so much. I feel bad though." Rica said looking at the ground.

"Why?"

"We must be a burden to you, and that's the last thing I want to be to someone." Rica said looking up at him.

"Don't worry about it." He said with a smile.

In fact you two proved that you are not burdens. He thought to himself as he shifted Luca's weight on his shoulder. Luca gave out a stupid giggle and kicked her feet a little.

"Pretty sensei, pretty sensei." She said between giggles.

Rica's face reddened in embarrassment for her poor intoxicated friend.

Kakashi paid no mind to Luca's drunken ramblings as he made his way to the apartment.

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Kakashi put Luca on the bed and felt her forehead.

"She'll have a hangover in the morning." He said looking at the still twitching mass that occasionally giggled "pretty sensei."

"How are you feeling?" He turned to Rica who was looking at a bookshelf.

"Oh…I'm alright I guess. A little dizzy, just a buzz." She said her attention still on the books.

"Well, you two, get to bed." He said as he got off the bed and walked to Rica. He picked her up and set her on the bed next to her twitching friend.

"Get some sleep. Thank you for cleaning today." He said with a smile.

Rica blushed slightly at the kindness and smiled.

"Goodnight." She said, her eyelids suddenly becoming heavy.

"Goodnight." Kakashi said before leaving the bedroom.

He shut the door on the two girls and sighed. He didn't really mind having them stay, but the fact that he had to sleep on the couch again wasn't sitting well with him. He looked at the couch and groaned before laying down on it.

He took out a copy of his favorite book from between the cushions and started to read. It didn't take long before he too fell asleep.

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End chapter.

I know, corny ending. I'll come up with something better, I promise. Maybe Luca getting drunk again and doing something stupid - who knows.

Reviewer Responses -

Rishan - Glad you like it! bows

Raymond - Hopefully the clarifications clear up a few things. I think I also talked to you about a couple of the other things you had asked me. Thanks for reading.

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Thank you all for reading, I really appreciate it.